Thursday, September 01, 2016

Thu Sep 1st Todays News

US Presidential candidate for the GOP was invited to go to Mexico and meet with the Mexican government. He did, and despite agitators, looked presidential and spoke with a Presidential Voice. Meanwhile Hillary is laying low, not able to address the corruption concerns of many, exposed by Wikileaks. Meanwhile in Australia, the ALP have exposed Turnbull's weakness, almost forcing the government to launch a senseless inquiry into banking profits. If the ALP had their way, banks would not profit in Australia. Think about what that means. Without banks, or with weak banks, investment dries up. But the ALP were able to do it because Turnbull campaigned badly and lost the conservative majority and weakened the senate. ALP passed useless bills in the senate, and when they got the numbers in the lower house, attempted to pass them through the lower house too. Politicians had left early to fly home. With a majority of one, that can't happen. The Senate is a joke, and under Malcolm Turnbull, the conservatives are weak. For some, at the moment, the Sex Party has more credibility.

=== from 2015 ===

Dyson Heydon's ruling is tight. Unassailably tight. The only legal way forward for the ALP is to agitate for change while claiming they haven't read the ruling.

Bill Shorten is isolated within his own party in his opposition to a free trade agreement with China.

Obama encouraged post PM Rudd to international activism, Hillary's email reveals.Fairfax jihad on conservative government continues, Immigration Minister Peter Dutton says. There are no drowning islands in the world. Peter Costello writes and illustrates the point that elected officials are better than public servants at addressing public concerns.

Shorten seems to have used superannuation cash from a union run fund for election purposes.

From 2014

Joe Tripodi captured the attention of news services today, as he told the ICAC he had campaigned against an ALP candidate who opposed the business interests of Nathan Tinkler's Buildev wanting a coal loader. So former Premier Ms Keneally is furious and feels betrayed. She can't understand why Tripodi would betray the ALP that way. Tripodi has said he hadn't betrayed the ALP, he had opposed the ALP candidate. Tripodi denied he had designed the campaign against the ALP candidate. Tripodi says he advised against the campaign, but when he realised it was proceeding he advised on the words used so as to keep it legal. Lost among the pain and hurt is the fact that the coal loader would have been good for the local community, boosting the economy, and opposition to it was based on nothing more than hysterical lies regarding industrial use of coal. And corruption of the former ALP has meant that for developers to do what is needed to grow industry, they are subject to the world of corrupt negotiation. Unions are using stand over tactics to develop slush funds and Joe was positioning himself to control those funds. Lack of transparency within political decision making has meant that such corruption flourishes, which harms the economy and local community and pushes young people out of work. Keneally was not worried about Joe becoming a king maker using corruptly obtained money. Neither was she concerned at the arbitrary decision to oppose useful business on probably corrupt grounds. But, Keneally is shocked that Joe would harm an ALP member's attempt at getting an undeserved seat. Something that any private decision is allowed to do. And which media outlet has noticed what is wrong with the situation? Only Sydney Conservative.

John Robertson is still unelectable. He has done nothing to deserve being elected. In government, he opposed progress and championed the corrupt process of the ALP and unions that sees business extorted just to run. The media are very supportive, constantly propping him up for balance when criticising good Liberal party policy. But while the old adage 'if you do nothing, you do nothing wrong,' applies, the Liberal Party have done too much which is right. It is good to see improvement in school, public transport, hospitals and law enforcement which previous ALP administrations had given up on, claiming it was no longer possible to run an efficient train network or ticket appropriately. Or increasing waiting lists for everybody needing medical care. Or budgeting appropriately. The Greiner Fahey government had set up an electricity sale which could have netted NSW $60 billion, or twice more. Carr opposed it, as does Robertson. It is unlikely NSW would get what was on offer for electricity twenty years ago. NSW people, still black and blue from Robertson style thuggery, don't want him.

Victoria's ALP seems to have an old problem with a Calabrian connection. Organised crime is something the ALP have long been connected with in NSW, from well before the killing of Donald Mackay. The ALP member allegedly had weapons charges too. Naturally the alleged controls an ALP branch and has factional power to control preselection. Te ALP need to be proud of their choices in the lead up to the Victorian state election. Otherwise they look like losers. Gosford Anglican church proudly displays a sign saying they are campaigning against Team Australia. The reasoning for the choice seems absent of God. Another who worships strange things, Greens Leader in Australia's federal government, remarks on victims of Middle East terrorism "Just let them die." That explains her party's support for the murderous people smugglers who charge tens of thousands of dollars to poor, desperate people. Meanwhile in the UK, in Rotherham, 1400 children have been sexually abused with state permission. It turns out they weren't the right race or religion for the community to care about. It is definitely an embarrassing moment for the UK. When Mr Abbott said Australia's defining moment was the first fleet sailing into Sydney Harbour, it was worse than him winking on radio. Maybe the UK can store their child protection files in the cloud. That is secure, and might not show their nakedness.

From 2013

David Frost died today, and a lasting memory of his time on the stage he owned is his assault on Nixon. Frost claimed he had a gotcha .. but he hadn't. And so a great artist was limited by his left wing politics. He called himself balanced. But it would be more precise to say entrenched. His form of leftwing liberalism predates him and carries on to this day. It explains why George Bush and Ronald Reagan were so popular, yet so despised too. Because the entrenched criticism from a partisan media meant the media were ignored and the conservatives could cut through. But the ceaseless sniping and lies from the media eroded public trust. And so politics is cyclical, having discovered a two term office in latter days of US democracy. Carter, Clinton and Obama ran on a platform devoid of policy but supported by the press. Carter's administration was so bad that Reagan broke it off cycle. Twelve years of Republican Presidency ended when press lauded a 'come back kid.' Doormat Hilary, when questioned about his infidelity, said she believed him, and no one else should care. But that response doesn't cut it over Benghazi. Australia has a similar political cycle. Unlike the US, where politicians need call supporters to vote, Australia has compulsory voting and so Australian parties try to encourage votes from the other party through the centre. The Liberal party, being conservative, have been very successful since the party's creation. The much older Australian Labor Party is leftist. The names swap over from foreign understanding but the parties are analogs to the US Republicans and Democrats. Currently we are in an ALP cycle, but they have been so bad that not even the press are supporting them as well as they can. The clumsy attempts to censor the press has only been supported by some media. The ALP still have some support, but not from the centre. Greens have eaten at the ALP left wing. And so the ALP are polling 47 to 53, but it will probably be much, much worse. Still, the Queensland experience, where Anna Bligh asked the electorate not to punish the ALP too much which saw a devastating loss has taught the ALP a lesson. They aren't admitting they are lost yet. They launched their campaign with six days to election. They haven't announced policy, but instead claimed the opposition hadn't. How will the US respond to Syria? Obama says he will bomb something. Maybe. Many claim Rudd will go on a G20 junket in the last two days prior to election. An admission of loss if he does.

Historical perspective on this day

Not done

=== Publishing News ===

This column welcomes feedback and criticism. The column is not made up but based on the days events and articles which are then placed in the feed. So they may not have an apparent cohesion they would have had were they made up.

Bread of Life is a daily bible quote with a layman's understanding of the meaning. I give one quote for each day, and also a series of personal stories illustrating key concepts eg Who is God? What is a miracle? Why is there tragedy?

January is the first of the anticipated year-long work of thirteen books. One for each month and the whole year. It costs to publish. It (Kindle version) should retail at about $2US online, but the paperback version would cost more, according to production cost.If you have a heart for giving, I fundraise at gofund.me/27tkwuc

Happy birthday and many happy returns Ibn Jubayr (1145), Edward Alleyn (1566), Johann Pachelbel (1653), William IV, Prince of Orange (1711), Engelbert Humperdinck (1854), Edgar Rice Burroughs (1875), Rocky Marciano (1923), Conway Twitty (1933), Barry Gibb (1946), Phil McGraw (1950), Zendaya (1996). On your day, Start of the Liturgical year in the Eastern Orthodox Church; Father's Day in Australia, Fiji, Papua New Guinea and New Zealand (2013); Constitution Day in Slovakia1529 – Sancti Spiritu, the first European settlement in Argentina, was destroyed by local natives.1774 – Thomas Gage, royal governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, ordered soldiers to remove gunpowder from a magazine, causing Patriots to prepare for war.1880 – The army of Mohammad Ayub Khan was routed by the British at the Battle of Kandahar, ending the Second Anglo-Afghan War.1923 – The Great Kantō earthquake, measuring 7.9 on the Richter scale, struck the Kantō region of Japan, devastating Tokyo and Yokohama, and killing over an estimated 100,000 people.1983 – Soviet jet interceptors shot down the civilian airliner Korean Air Lines Flight 007 (artist's rendition pictured) near Sakhalin Island in the North Pacific, killing all 246 passengers and 23 crew on board. The land is sanctified. The order is given. The enemy is routed. Tokyo is shaken. Try and fly straight and true, to avoid tragedy Live long, and prosper.

Tim Blair – Thursday,September 01,2016 (11:36am)

A refugee jailed over the sickening rape of a 10-year-old boy told authorities that it was culturally acceptable to sexually assault children in his homeland.

Mufiz Rahaman, 20, slumped forward in the dock at Downing Centre District Court yesterday as he was sentenced to five years in jail, with a non-parole period of three years, after pleading guilty to aggravated sexual assault of the boy in the child’s bed on January 8 last year …

In sentencing Rahaman, Judge Andrew Scotting said the community from which the offender came from “had demonstrated a lack of proper morality”.

Judges might find themselves using that line more frequently in coming years.

An ABC presenter
actually claims that we need 18C to stop police from saying things that
will get them attacked by Aboriginal mobs, as they were in Kalgoorlie.
Don’t believe me? Then watch:

Bravo, Greg Sheridan for calling this out.
UPDATE
No surprise that the Human Rights Commission is a menace, bending over backwards to strip members of one “race” of their rights.
Hedley Thomas:

Freedom of Information disclosure to students accused of ­racism
shows the Human Rights Commission did not follow its own guidelines
before the complaint of Cindy Prior advanced to the Federal Circuit
Court ... in her $250,000 legal case against students for their Facebook
posts.
The handbook cautions staff to “be careful to ensure the neutrality of
your approach” when dealing with people who are the subject of such
complaints, adding “no assumptions should be made about the validity of
the complaint or views expressed as to its substance”.
The person should “be provided with the opportunity to ­respond to the
complaint in a co-operative, informal manner”, and staff are required to
treat the parties equally and to ensure they are ­notified and heard.
“In general this means that a (person who is the subject of a complaint)
has the right to know of, and respond to, a complaint against him or
her and a right to a fair and unbiased handling of the matter,’’ the
handbook says.
Under the heading “Possible early termination of a complaint”, the
handbook advises that in less serious cases the commission’s staff
should take additional steps to contact the accused person…
In the QUT case, three ­students — Calum Thwaites, Alex Wood and Jackson
Powell — were accused by Ms Prior of racial hatred in a formal
complaint to the commission in May 2014. But the commission failed for
14 months to tell them they were ­accused of a legal offence, racial
vilification under section 18C. The students found out days before a
compulsory conciliation conference in August last year.
Other documents released previously under FOI show that the commission
had effectively excluded the students from correspondence and dealt
instead with Ms Prior’s legal team and QUT’s staff and solicitors.

Race Hate Push: ABC’s heading The ABC headline says it all. Yes, a proposal to amend section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act is race hate push.
I noticed Leigh Sales use the same disgraceful term on 730 [on Tuesday] night – it is clearly the ABC’s editorial directive…
The Minister for Communications needs to ring the Chairman of the ABC
immediately and to tell him to order all ABC staff to refrain from the
term “race hate”. Section 18 C does not refer to hate but insulting and
offending; to use the term race hate is just biased and incendiary.
(Yes, I know, just what we expect from the ABC.)

When our Prime Minister thinks same-sex marriage is more important than
freedom of speech, you know our liberty is in mortal danger. This is not
a comment on same-sex marriage. It’s an observation that Malcolm
Turnbull would rather see the selective application of freedom than
support equality and liberty for all by reforming section 18c of the
Racial Discrimination Act.
Turnbull acknowledges “the very worthy arguments” surrounding free
speech but he dismisses it as unworthy of discussion because “it is not
going to create an extra job, it is not going to … build an extra road”.
Can something essential to our culture be thought so inconsequential
that it means less than jobs and road building?

More important, section 18D of the act exempts any “fair comment on any …
matter of public interest” done reasonably and in good faith…
In fact, excepting the 2011 case Eatock v Bolt, in which prominent
columnist Andrew Bolt was ordered to withdraw two columns, no other
finding under 18C has proven at all controversial. The two other
examples generally offered by the “free speech warriors” are not
findings and likely never will be.
As noted, the Leak cartoon is almost certainly exempt under 18D…
Meanwhile, the Queensland University of Technology computer labs case
appears to have been badly handled by the Australian Human Rights
Commission but, based on publicly available information, looks quite
unlikely to end in significant findings against the students accused.

A woman seeking $247,470 in a racial
vilification row against ­academics, jobless students and a top
Queensland university ­offered to drop students from the case in return
for $5000 ­payments.
The Australian can reveal that at least two students, who were accused
by indigenous woman Cindy Prior of racial vilification over their posts
on a QUT Facebook page in May 2013, accepted confidential settlement
offers and were removed from the legal case in the Federal Circuit
Court…
They settled, as they could not afford the legal costs to defend­
themselves in the case, which is relying on the controversial section
18C of federal race­ discrimination laws.

So when Colin reassures us that most cases are quietly settled, he’s
actually saying other innocent people may likewise have been terrified
into paying go-away money, just like these students:

The vast majority of claims under 18C have been conciliated through
the Australian Human Rights Commission, withdrawn or dismissed. Many
cases end with a simple apology.

And Colin leaves unaddressed the fact that a court actually banned two
of my own articles in a judgement he has said he does not support. That
is not a small objection or exception.
(Thanks to readers Peter of Bellevue Hill and John Galt.)

The invitation is
“coveted”? I’d say it’s exactly the kind of invitation best avoided for
fear of being asked to do too much by a President who will soon be
safely out the door, without responsibility for what he demands others
do:

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is under pressure on the world stage to take substantial new action on the migrant crisis after Australia scored a coveted invitation to a refugee summit hosted by US President Barack Obama.
Fairfax Media has learned the United States has extended the invitation
to Australia to attend the Leaders’ Summit on Refugees, to be held on
September 20 at the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, at
which Mr Obama will urge nations to increase their refugee intake and
humanitarian funding.

Tony Abbott catches up with Pauline Hanson, who has blamed him for
helping to get her (unfairly) jailed. It seems there is now a mutual
respect, and the media Left is choking.
First the very kind 60 Minutes profile and now this. Hanson is
being affirmed, not demonised, and her brand will grow stronger -
provided her team sticks together.

This is red hot. Dastyari must say how much Chinese interests have sponsored him and explain what effect that’s had on his pro-China spruiking:

Labor Senator Sam Dastyari pledged to respect China’s
position on the South China Sea at an election campaign press
conference he held with a Chinese political donor who had previously
paid his legal bills.
He has also urged Australia to drop its opposition to China’s air defence zone in the contested region.
The comments, reported in the Chinese media, conflict with Labor’s
official position on the issue which is that Australia should oppose
China’s stance and authorise our navy and airforce to conduct freedom of
navigation exercises in the South China Sea....
Senator Cory Bernardi on Wednesday labelled Senator Dastyari the
“Manchurian candidate” after he admitted in the Senate that he was wrong
to ask an Australian-Chinese donor, Top Education Institute’s Minshen
Zhu, to pay an expenses bill of $1670 for him when he exceeded publicly
funded travel entitlements....,
Now it can be revealed that on June 17 in the lead-up to the July
election this year Senator Dastyari assured the Chinese community he
would respect China’s stance on the South China Sea, according to
articles in the Chinese media.
“The South China Sea is China’s own affair. On this issue, Australia
should remain neutral and respect China’s decision,” he said.
Also speaking at the Sydney press conference beside Senator Dastyari was
political donor and philanthropist Huang Xiangmo, who The Australian
Financial Review reported on Tuesday had complained that Australian MPs
were not delivering on donations from the Chinese community. He
suggested the Australian Chinese community should use political
donations to satisfy their political requests.
Mr Huang has previously paid a legal bill for Senator Dastyari.

Target Australia has withdrawn a Batgirl T-shirt aimed at young girls
following an outcry over a “sexist message” emblazoned on the front to
do with dry cleaning and other household chores…

“Batgirl to-do list: Dry clean cape, wash batmobile, fight crime, save the world,” it reads.
Mary Sheargold, of Bentleigh, said [on Facebook] she thought the message was “really inappropriate” and “outrageous"…
“I’d like to see a society where men and women are contributing equally
at home,” said Ms Sheargold, a lawyer. “I think it sends a really
damaging message, not just to children, but to society."…

Other posters on Target’s page noted similarly “sexist” T-shirt slogans
stocked by the retailer, including a girls’ shirt that includes the
Audrey Hepburn quote: “Happy girls are the prettiest."…
Target said in a statement it was pulling the shirt from its shelves.
“After reviewing and reading our customers concerns on the Batgirl tee,
we have decided to remove the shirt from our stores. It was never
Target’s intention to offend our customers with this item.”

For goodness sake, the message was ironic and actually a riff on a feminist dig at men. Now it’s a put-down of women?
(Thanks to reader Nick.)

AUSTRALIA has developed a death wish. Why this green mania to make us poor?
On Wednesday, Victorian Premier Daniel ­Andrews announced he would permanently ban fracking for coal-seam gas.
Even conventional gas drilling — done safely here for half a century — would be banned to at least 2020.
Andrews could point to not a scrap of credible science to back these bans.
He cited only the fear spread by green alarmists: “This is the first ban
of its kind anywhere in our nation and it just speaks volumes to the
dangers, the uncertainty and the anxiety within the Victorian community
about fracking.”
This is not the first time a state has banned a safe technology at a big cost to jobs and wealth.
(Read full article here.)

The book’s amazing world tour continues. It has now dropped in with reader Barry on Hobart’s Despard Gallery:
The artist is Graham Lang, who has a new exhibition.
As it happens, I have been to this very gallery and had a lovely chat
with director Steven Joyce. Joyce was very protective and proud of one
artist he has nurtured for many years, symbolist Dale Richards, whose
very distinctive pictures you can find here.
In fact, I did try to buy one from Joyce later but my emails probably
went missing and I have since picked up another work elsewhere:

My wife isn’t keen on it, but it still appeals to me. It’s called For Father, Goodbye.

To reward the art lover in your life, order the book here. On-line buyers also get the semi-regular Bolt Bulletin, as will people pre-ordering the reprint of my Still Not Sorry on line.
UPDATE

ON SATURDAY: I’ll be speaking at Sydney’s Festival of Dangerous Ideas The topic: How Many Dangerous Ideas Can One Person Have? I suspect they mean dangerous to me. Click here for more info and to book. There will be a book signing.
ON FATHER’S DAY, SUNDAY, September 4, another book-signing, this time in Melbourne - at 2pm at the Costco store at 381 Footscray Road, Docklands.

ANOTHER green dream has turned into a nightmare — at least for investors still dumb enough to believe Tim Flannery.
Energy company Geodynamics has now closed its geothermal power project
in South Australia’s far north. This green technology involved drilling
several kilometres down to hot rocks, which would then superheat water
and drive generators.
“The technology worked,” insisted Geodynamics boss Chris Murray. But the
huge cost of the technology and of bringing the power to distant cities
“was just greater than the revenue stream”.
No kidding.
Yet who spruiked this project — while almost never revealing he was a
shareholder? Yes, indeed, Tim Flannery, the mammal expert who became a
professional warming alarmist and, thanks to the Gillard government, our
chief Climate Commissioner.
(Read full article here.)

A FEMALE police officer has been stabbed in the throat at a police station in the French city of Toulouse…
A man, reported to be of Algerian origin, tried to grab the officer’s
gun and it is understood that when he failed, he pulled out a knife,
repeatedly stabbing her in the throat.
The woman is in a serious condition…

I think we’re reaching a point where it almost doesn’t matter now what the motive is - or is said to be. An Algerian, you say?:

One theory put to The Australian yesterday was Mr Turnbull was keen
to pursue the change [to negative gearing] as a counter to attacks on
his wealth and improve his status with lower and middle-income earners.

No thought about whether the policy change would be disastrous: it was
all about how it would make Turnbull look. It would seem the same kind
of thinking was at play over the Libs’ appalling super policy:

The loudest complaints on the budget come from the
Coalition’s own base - over superannuation - and that is no accident.
The government ... anticipated it would get its voter base screaming. It
made the pragmatic political judgement that this was not all bad
either, as a signal to the broader community that it was not simply
appealing to the heartland.

Granted, Turnbull has produced precious little in the way of policy and
seems terrified of making any calls of substance. But of the policy he
does produce, how much of it will be based on how it will make Turnbull
look personally?
Might be a Bill Leak-style cartoon in it: Turnbull trying on a pair of
policy pants in front of a mirror, and asking Morrison if they make his
bum look big.

Piers Akerman – Tuesday,September 01,2015 (12:26am)

COMMISSIONER Dyson Heydon’s reasons for remaining in charge of the Royal Commission into Trade Union Governance and Corruption pass the sniff test, the pub test and any other test the frightened rats in corrupt unions and their lackeys in the Labor Party may demand.

We support the China-Australia free trade agreement ... There is an extraordinary amount of opportunity that’s ­occurring for South Australian businesses by tapping into the largest single market in the world. This visit is to explore further ­opportunities ... which ultimately means jobs.

The concerns of unions cannot be rejected out of hand but the Chinese FTA doesn’t need to be rewritten.... [O]ur analysis of the FTA is that any incoming Labor government would have all the mechanisms it needs to protect … Australian workers.

The only person standing in the way of jobs and the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement is Bill Shorten — who is taking instructions from his union masters and the CFMEU… Australia has nothing to fear and everything to gain from freer trade.

An emotionally wrought Kevin Rudd actively sought out the solace of the world’s most powerful government in the days after his removal at the hands of colleagues in 2010. In a surprise development, Mr Rudd is among the names featured in the email furore engulfing the US presidential frontrunner, Hillary Rodham Clinton, with a public release of her private correspondence revealing he was in contact with the then secretary of state after being dumped as prime minister…After speaking to Barack Obama, who told him he was eager to see the Australian strike out on the world stage in an international role of some type, Mr Rudd subsequently travelled to Washington DC where he spent time talking with Mrs Clinton.Fairfax Media understands Mr Rudd secured an appointment with the Democratic Party heavyweight in the State Department in the days after his demise and while she was prepared to have a cup of tea, she eventually ended up giving over most of an otherwise busy afternoon as she counselled him to pick himself up and rebuild from his setback. However, he was so disconsolate that the pep talk failed to significantly lift his spirits…In an email from the then US ambassador to Canberra Jeffrey Bleich, to his State Department superiors, just one week after Mr Rudd was deposed, Mr Bleich informs them that the former prime minister would like to speak with “S”. “S” was the shorthand for Secretary of State, Mrs Clinton.Mr Bleich continued: “I spoke at length with former PM Rudd on Monday. “Although he did not raise the issue, his aide called Edgard afterward and noted that Rudd had not heard from S, and would have hoped for a sympathetic call. I have no strong point of view on this one. He has received such a call from POTUS already.” POTUS is shorthand for the President of the United States.

I think there’s a huge move by Fairfax at the moment to try and bring the Government down, that’s fair enough… They’re being helped by the ABC as well, there’s no question about that, some elements of the ABC.

Just last Saturday, Fairfax political correspondent falsely claimed Tony Abbott had personally ordered border force officials to stop citizens in the the street to demand papers.Just the week before, The Age falsely claimed a Liberal candidate was a possible war criminal.Earlier this year Fairfax falsely claimed a homophobic Abbott had snubbed a gay man he actually took to dinner instead.Before that, The Age falsely implied Abbott’s Treasurer was corrupt.And, in an all-purpose rant, Fairfax serial abuser Peter Hartcher is so deranged by Abbott hatred that he sees only a Prime Monster:

… delivered a scripted, studied slur ... calculated to offend ... knowingly sowing discord ... waged a furious assault on anyone daring to speak in defence of refugees ... become a serial abuser of one minority after another ... gone from unifier to divider ... conducting serial provocations of Australia’s minorities ... temper tantrums ... a continuously dismaying symbol of disunity ... a demoniser in the service of the basest of politics.

‘Dyson Heydon’s disclosure has been widely mocked on Twitter. Commentator Mike Carlton asked, “Is it true, as alleged, that Dyson Heydon doesn’t use a computer...writes it all in longhand?” ‘

How is what commentator Carlton thinks relevant?There is also this on the ABC this morning:

Greg Barns, a barrister and a spokesman for the Australian Lawyers Alliance, said it was “hard to see” how a judge could judge himself. “From the community’s perspective, it’s hard to see how a judge and royal commissioner can sit in his or her own case, in effect judge himself or herself, and that’s exactly what’s happened here and I think this ruling ought to be a catalyst for reform,” he said.’

Ex-journalist Mike Carlton, one of the most spiteful tweeters of the Left, is now someone to quote on AM? Greg Barns, the bile-full former Greens candidate, is someone with an opinion worth repeating? Seriously?
The only reason you’d ask either man’s opinion on the Abbott Government is to have them abuse it. The ABC is just an echo-chamber of its own prejudices.
PS: memo to Barns. Heydon in his judgment explained why he was sitting in judgement of himself - because that is where complaints are customarily heard at first - and went on to explain that the next step was to appeal the decision in another court, in this case the Federal Court. The spokesman for something called the Australian Lawyers Alliance should know this is the standard process, and should explain it rather than join in the crude jeering of it.
Here is Heydon explaining the issue:

Closer to Australia, small Pacific island states like Kiribati and Tuvalu are suffering similar fates. Populations who’ve lived on these islands for centuries are becoming part of a 21st century phenomenon. These are the climate refugees.

Professor Ian McGregor from the Institute of Sustainable Futures says Kivalina is not alone. He says small islands are already being swept away and none of what’s happening to Kivalina, Kiribati or Tuvalu should come as a surprise.

New Zealand coastal geomorphologist Paul Kench, of the University of Auckland’s School of Environment, and colleagues in Australia and Fiji, who have been studying how reef islands in the Pacific and Indian Oceans respond to rising sea levels. They found that reef islands change shape and move around in response to shifting sediments, and that many of them are growing in size, not shrinking, as sea level inches upward. The implication is that many islands—especially less developed ones with few permanent structures—may cope with rising seas well into the next century… Their analysis, which now extends to more than 600 coral reef islands in the Pacific and Indian Oceans, indicates that about 80 percent of the islands have remained stable or increased in size (roughly 40 percent in each category). Only 20 percent have shown the net reduction that’s widely assumed to be a typical island’s fate when sea level rises. Some islands grew by as much as 14 acres (5.6 hectares) in a single decade, and Tuvalu’s main atoll, Funafuti—33 islands distributed around the rim of a large lagoon—has gained 75 acres (32 hectares) of land during the past 115 years.

But 2,000 miles to the west in South Tarawa, Kiribati’s narrow, six-square-mile capital island crowded with 50,000 people, the picture is much darker. Over the past half-century, residents of the 15 other Gilbert Islands have flocked there in search of jobs and better schools for their children… To minimize flooding, they built poorly designed seawalls that regularly collapse. Meanwhile, the government increased South Tarawa’s area by 19 percent over 30 years by building causeways between islets and creating new land over the reef with lagoon sand poured behind seawalls. The widespread erosion and flooding that resulted “is primarily due to [local] human activities,” which unless stopped will “increase erosion and susceptibility of the reef islands to anticipated sea-level rise,” one study concluded.

Though the study’s lead author is Naomi Biribo, a senior civil servant in Tarawa, [President Anote] Tong has ignored it and become a minor international celebrity by blaming the island’s coastal problems uniformly on climate change.... Scientists like Kench say that the people of Tarawa will face the same choices as other coastal denizens when the sea rises further. Either they allow the beach to move forward and they retreat inland to higher ground, or they build concrete seawalls and the beach is washed away… Or they can move back to their home islands. Aranuka, for example, has seen its population drop to 800 as many moved to Tarawa. It has the same land area as Tarawa, but instead of being long and thin, part of it is three miles by five on the lee side of the island—"Good protection against the waves,” said Kench. “I’d say it has a good chance of surviving climate change.”

A little checking of the claims of green scaremongers is the least that readers deserve.
(Thanks to reader Paul.)

Although it happened less than a week ago, already it seems to have disappeared from public discussion. So allow me to recap.Craig Emerson, Labor’s former trade minister, and Nick Cater, of the Liberals’ Menzies Centre, got two major national newspapers to sponsor a conference with the aim of “kickstarting” a national reform agenda.The conveners decided the guest list. It excluded publicly elected representatives. Those attending consisted of paid staff at the business, union and welfare lobbies, representatives of the “think-tanks”, some individual business and union people and officials from the industry groups…Emerson helpfully drafted a concluding statement in advance, which changed little as a result of the discussion....What did we learn?

We didn’t hear one new idea. There was no indication that any of the people at the conference could sway public opinion. Comparing this convention of hand-picked professional conference-goers with the elected assembly of the Parliament showed Parliament in a new favourable light.The ... summit said we should work to a target of balancing the Budget in 10 years. That’s in 2025, after 17 years of deficits! Wasn’t this summit meant to start a reform agenda?…And then I realised that the summit demonstrated there is no substitute for political leadership… All those welfare and industry leaders, all those public servants should remember one advantage they have that elected representatives will never share.They don’t have to account to the public in elections. That is the hardest part. It might have been worth having someone make that point at the summit.

I think he probably made a mistake by failing to distinguish the particular character of a Royal commission as opposed to a court and imposing a standard of reasonableness in terms of the interpretation of people’s intentions that really goes beyond what the ordinary man in the street might draw upon.

Where does the ABC find these people? After Justice Heydon handed down his decision today ABC News24 went for ‘expert’ opinion on Heydon’s ruling from Anna Olijnyk, a lawyer from Adelaide University. Quell my surprise when she popped up again on The 7.30 Report again for her expert opinion. She had previously written Heydon related articles on The Drum and The Conversation.Who is Anna Olijnyk and what are her qualifications to be making ‘expert’ commentory on Heydon’s rulings? A quick search found this:

Please list your degree details, including year of graduation and subsequent qualifications: I’m now a lecturer at Adelaide Law School. I completed my undergraduate Law degree at Adelaide in 2008, and have just completed my PhD in law, also at Adelaide. I was admitted to legal practice in 2008 (although I’ve never practiced law).

How hard did the ABC search to find a qualified lawyer, who’s never practiced law, to give commentary on the decisions of one of the most eminent and accomplished judges this country has produced?

UPDATE
To be fair, Olijnkyk doesn’t simply trash Heydon’s ruling:

ANNA OLIJNYK: Legally it is fairly convincing. He certainly engages with the arguments on a very detailed level. What I think is interesting about the decision is how he really dismisses the value of general impression. He actually criticises some of the unions’ arguments as being imprecise.He says for example, labelling the Sir Garfield Barwick Lecture as Liberal party function is a very imprecise way of labelling it, you have to look very closely at what it is. He also talks about the importance of considering whether any allegiance that he does have to the Liberal party would affect his decisions in the royal commission. And he says, oh no they wouldn’t, because the issues for him to decide in the royal commission are not, he thinks, party political.So it’s a very carefully reasoned judgement and the reasoning is pretty hard to fault.

The paybacks have been coming thick and fast in Victoriastan; I guess they won’t ever stop as long as Dan the Man is in power. But here is a clear payback to the Australian Nurses Federation, whose members? officials? paid actors? put on their nursing uniforms (is there still such a thing?) and door knocked for Dan the Man in marginal seats, particularly those located close to the Frankston train line. Notwithstanding the fact that the minimum nurse-to-patient ratio is set down in binding enterprise agreements, the Victorian Labor government obviously wants to ensure that these costly and not particularly effective ratios are set in stone so should the electorate ... elect a Coalition government in the future, the ratios will stay in place.

BILL Shorten’s campaign to become Labor leader in 2013 had received donations from an allegedly dodgy, secret million-dollar union slush fund.... The Daily Telegraph can reveal Mr Shorten received $5000 in donations from a slush fund called IR21 associated with the National Union of Workers…It was alleged IR21 was set up to dodge rules prohibiting unions from using members’ money to fund internal election campaigns.Mr Shorten at the time was contesting the internal leadership of the ALP against Anthony Albanese. One major donor to the IR21 slush fund was industry super fund LUCRF (Labour Union Cooperative Retirement Fund) whose board was dominated by NUW officials. The LUCRF super fund has 180,000 union and non-union members The former secretary of the NUW Charlie Donnelly, who was named in the interim report as being responsible for setting up IR21, resigned from the NUW and became CEO of LUCRF in 2014.

Trains carrying hundreds of migrants started arriving in Vienna on Monday after Austrian authorities appeared to give up trying to apply European Union rules by filtering out refugees who had already claimed asylum in Hungary. In the latest twist in a humanitarian and political crisis that is now testing the survival of both Europe’s open-border regime and its asylum rules, Hungary allowed the migrants, many of them fleeing Syria’s civil war, to cram into at least four trains leaving Budapest for Austria or Germany. Many of the refugees arriving in Vienna railway station on Monday evening immediately raced to board trains heading on to Germany, as policemen looked on passively, preferring not to intervene, witnesses said.

Germany, crippled by the legacy of World War 2, will feel morally unable to deploy the army to send more unwanted people away by train. This is why Chancellor Angela Merkel is attacking her own citizens as racist rather than resist the invaders who alarm them. It is all she dare do.
And as its population of Third World illegal immigrants grows, Germany - like the rest of Europe - will find it even more dangerous to intervene in the Third World wars that are feeding this great invasion, for fear of a tribal backlash on its own streets.
Europe a century from now will be very, very different - dangerously unmoored from the culture that produced its freedom and its wealth.
UPDATEPeter Hitchens:

So, the transformation of this country by mass migration, begun by New Labour to rub the Right’s nose in diversity, has now moved up a gear. One in eight of us was born abroad – and how long before that’s one in six, and then one in four? These people are not (as I am) the children of British subjects born while overseas. They are people who have grown up in a different culture. Never before in our history have we faced the task of integrating a minority so large. Never before have we had such a feeble idea of what being British is.And yet people ask me, as if the idea were absurd, why I think this will be a Muslim country within a couple of generations. I can think of no force or idea or movement or faith more likely to prosper in the state to come. Like all other civilisations which lost their nerve and the will to live, European Christianity is destined to become a minority in its own territory.

Now Labor is threatening to drag the Governor General into its despicable attempt to sack a corruption buster investigating crooked union officials and shady deals involving Labor leader Bill Shorten.
Senator Penny Wong, a former CFMEU lawyer, confirms on the ABC today that Labor will move in the Senate to get the Governor General to dismiss Dyson Heydon as head of the royal commission into union corruption.
Sir Peter Cosgrove won’t do anything so outrageous, of course, which will then expose him to Labor attacks that he, too, is one of Abbott’s “captain’s picks”. Labor will trash one institution after another to protect the guilty, which raises the question: what would it do if it formed Government? How might it use state power to hide corruption in union ranks, or even its own?
If Labor and its union mates are so sure that Heydon is fatally biased, let the unions challenge Heydon’s ruling in the Federal Court, in the proper way. In fact, I dare them to.Chris Merritt:

Dyson Heydon has presented the unions with a very clear message: put up or shut up. His extensive reasons for refusing to step down from the royal commission are brutal.They start by relating how the unions botched their legal case with basic errors and conclude by highlighting divisions between the ACTU and the CFMEU. He tore apart their argument — not just on the law, but on the facts. He is daring the unions to challenge his ruling and, if they do, it would probably make his day.The only way forward for those trying to derail the royal commission is to seek judicial review, which would mean a limited argument on the grounds that Heydon, a former judge of the High Court, had made an error of law.Just pause and consider the implications: that would mean persuading the Federal Court that Heydon, one of the most brilliant legal minds of his generation, made an error of law in the most important and final ruling of his career knowing full well that his enemies would be crawling all over it, looking for a chink…Once the lawyers advising the anti-Heydon forces digest his 67 pages of reasons, it will dawn on them that their clients are on a hiding to nothing… When [Heydon] needed to rule on what the hypothetical “fair- minded lay observer” would make of things, he went on for pages pointing to logical flaws in the ACTU’s argument. Whichever way the unions jump, they face utter humiliation.

The commission has uncovered evidence of the misuse of members’ money, bribery and corruption that has led to four arrests and 26 union members being referred to 11 agencies, including the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions.

This investigation is what the Governor General must now stop?
UPDATE
Reader Arad is one of many to ask:

Would they be asking the GG to get involved if Bill Shorten’s mother-in-law still had the job?

A WESTERN Sydney property where two people were killed 12 years ago in a drive-by shooting was last night peppered with bullets again. Police were called to the Greenacre home in Lawford Street after 9pm where they found smashed windows at the front of the home and bullet holes at the property’s rear…Last night’s attack stands in deep contrast to the 2003 shooting that claimed the lives of Ziad Razzak and Mervat Nemra… Ramzi Aouad and Nasaem El-Zeyat were convicted by a jury of the murders, together with co-offenders Adnan Darwiche and Abass Osman, and sentenced to life imprisonment. There is no suggestion the 2003 incident is linked to last night’s shooting.

“It is notorious among the legal profession that I am incapable of sending or receiving emails. The consequence is that I read emails only after they have been printed out for me.” Those are the words of trade union royal commissioner Dyson Heydon, who highlighted on Monday his unwillingness to use email when he ruled that he would continue as the head of the royal commission despite being accused of bias for agreeing to appear at a Liberal Party fund-raiser… This swiftly prompted political activist group Electronic Frontiers Australia to issue a statement saying that all high-ranking public officials “must have at least basic computer and electronic communication skills”.

The Age completely overlooks the essential difference between someone who investigates - and thus may be expected to require electronic communication skills - and someone whose job is strictly to assess the evidence put before him, and no more.
Nor does The Age make the slightest attempt to link Heydon’s preferred method of working to some flaw in the actual performance of his royal commission. No,it simply consults the Twitter sewer to see which way the faeces is flowing:

A number of users also mocked Heydon on social media, describing him as being a Luddite.

So, as far as I can tell, the case against Heydon is that he can’t read the Twitter abuse about him, which The Age, harnessing its superior electronic communication skills, now dredges out and reproduces, to no benefit to anyone.
Next The Age will complain Heydon is so last century that he doesn’t even take Ecstasy.
UPDATEThe Agealso mocks Heydon’s looks, as if the reporter were back in the playground:

Tim Blair – Monday,September 01,2014 (6:14am)

A few years ago I became involved in a little online dispute with left-wing Brisbane feminist Kim Jameson. It all began when Kim criticised visiting Somalian author and activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a victim of female genital mutilation who subsequently abandoned her Muslim faith.

“Her view on Islam,” wrote Kim, “is too much coloured by her own experience.”

Well, yes. Having your genitals destroyed by some maniac with a knife might tend to have that effect. Jameson then considered the overall subject of Islamic girl cutting: “I believe that the best step that can be taken to work against it is to give support to those who are best placed to do so where it occurs, not to politicise the issue.”

The left politicises every other issue; why not this one? What’s the problem? Uncharacteristically, Jameson urged a cautious, quiet approach: “It would also be useful to know more about what sorts of methods those working against the practice in Australia are using. It would seem to me counterproductive to have loud denunciations of it – the key thing should be to convince people it is wrong.”

My response, back in the day: “You’d think if there was one issue on which a Western feminist might be moved to loud denunciation, it’d be the genital mutilation of little girls. But no; this instead turns out to be an issue (one of the few) about which the likes of Kim are inclined to shut the hell up. In the rock-scissors-paper hierarchy of the modern left, sensitivity to Islam trumps clitoral scissors every time.”

Horrific events in the UK now demonstrate the consequences of Western “sensitivity” towards Islam.

Tim Blair – Monday,September 01,2014 (5:36am)

Greenpeace decided to use the village as an example to the world to showcase how communities can do just fine on renewable energy. Greenpeace India set up a “solar-powered micro-grid” to power the village and it was paraded before the media as a success.

But the villagers hate it, because their new power source is rubbish. India Today reports:

They now want asli bijli (real electricity) from the government.

Slogan such as “Hamen nakli nahin, asli bijli chahiye (We do not want artificial energy, give us the real one,)” greeted former Chief minister Nitish Kumar, as he went to the village to see how the long forgotten region, devoid of electricity since 1981, looked after dusk.

Though the former chief minister tried to put up a brave front, asserting how the inexhaustible solar power would become the main source of energy in the future, he eventually promised the villagers that “real electricity” would be provided to them shortly.

The problem with the Greenpeace solar micro-grid is that you can’t power the lights at night. And what good is a fridge or freezer when it can be powered only 8 hours a day? Why should a developing country settled for part-time modernity when you can have it full time, and at a price that is less than half of the part-time “fake” energy? How can you run a factory or a hospital when the power is absent 14 hours a day?

You can’t, as the villagers are clearly aware. “Hamen nakli nahin, asli bijli chahiye,” is India’s version of “Sod off, Swampy!”

Tim Blair – Monday,September 01,2014 (4:55am)

Leichhardt Council is committed to “valuing and supporting the arrival and safe settlement of refugees and humanitarian entrants”, according to recent council minutes.

But there’s a significant problem. It’s difficult to value and support people who aren’t there: “The number of refugees residing in Leichhardt is, however, very low due to the high housing costs of the area.”

The Council’s solution? Work experience for refugees! Or refugee, singular. Leichhardt’s rulers are now investigating “the feasibility of dedicating one skilled work experience position per year to assist the employment pathway of a person of refugee or humanitarian entrant background.”

Tim Blair – Monday,September 01,2014 (4:12am)

An Iraqi news website is reporting that an Australian fighting with Islamic State, and who goes by the name Abu Yahya ash Shami, has been named the military commander for the town of Jalula in northern Iraq.

Citing a local source, the Iraqi News site said the Australian had proved his allegiance to Islamic State after he beheaded four people who refused to swear a bayat, or oath of allegiance, to [chief Islamic State goon Abu Bakr al] Baghdadi.

THE NSW coalition government maintains a comfortable lead over the Labor opposition despite losing nine Liberal MPs as a result of the ongoing Independent Commission Against Corruption investigation, an opinion poll suggests.

A Victorian Labor Party figure is facing weapon charges and had his local council election partly bankrolled by an alleged Calabrian Mafia boss in a major embarrassment for the ALP in the lead-up to the state election.

A Fairfax Media investigation can reveal that Moreland City councillor Michael Teti is facing three firearms charges and, according to court records, had a warrant issued for his arrest after failing to appear in court in May.

Donation records show Cr Teti, who controls a Labor Party branch and has used his factional power to influence the selection of state ALP candidates, received several thousand dollars in political donations from figures or firms closely connected to the Calabrian Mafia in 2012…

Cr Teti is an influential figure in the Labor Party in Melbourne’s northern suburbs and was recently listed on party documents as a state ALP conference delegate.

A former deputy mayor of Moreland who has been a councillor since 2008, ...Cr Teti controls [with others] the votes of a group of northern suburbs residents, including many with Italian heritage.

I don’t know the truth of these allegations published by The Age, but they are now in the public debate.

David Martin Jones says jihadism is not “alienation” but celebration, and we should stop blaming ourselves:

Significantly, Tony Abbott and the director of ASIO, David Irvine, have both recently said the problem Australia faces is the misguided “extremism” of a minority, rather than a radical, well-funded and highly attractive Islamist ideology.

Somewhat bizarrely, Irvine made a rare media appearance on a Muslim radio station to declare his “outrage” as an Australian at the idea that “we might be fighting Islam"…

In Britain, MI5 has come to take seriously the power of the ideological appeal of a version of Islam that sacralises violence and legitimates terror against the Kuffar. By contrast, the Australian government, its security agencies, its media and academic analysts of terrorism have promoted the view that to take Islamic rhetoric seriously is to play into “the politics of fear” and overreact to a problem associated with an irrelevant, fringe minority…

[But], before pouring money into the problem, the government might usefully ask why have publicly funded institutions failed to address the transnational power of what is essentially a death cult…

As early as 2004, in the wake of the Madrid bombings, Islamists defined the divide between a pluralist secular world view and their brand of apocalyptic millenarianism with the formula: “You love life, we love death"…

In essence, this aesthetising of death defines itself against a secular liberal belief in life....

Jihadism ... means, as numerous slickly produced videos on the internet demonstrate, adoring and serving death, be it as the slayer or the slain. In fact, its beatification of terrorist violence, or the management of savagery… This putrid need of death is evident today across the Middle East. Jihadism ... is a form of political nihilism made possible by the sacralisation of violence…

[T]he elected representatives of a secular democracy ought to do far more to defend a political way of life and target the promulgation and appeal of this potent and ultimately fascist death cult.

Rotherham has a population of just 250,000. You would think during those 16 years of systematic sexual abuse that someone might have noticed or that some of the victims and their families would have come forward. And, in fact, many did. But authorities, following the “no loud denunciation” rule, largely ignored them. Aside from the jailing of five men for sexual offences against girls in 2010, the attacks just continued.

Denis MacShane, the Labour MP for Rotherham from 1994 to 2012, explained why: “There was a culture of not wanting to rock the multicultural community boat, if I may put it like that. Perhaps, yes, as a true Guardian reader and liberal Leftie, I suppose I didn’t want to raise that too hard.”

Nobody did. According to Professor Jay’s report: “Several staff described their nervousness about identifying the ethnic origins of perpetrators for fear of being thought as racist; others remembered clear direction from their managers not to do so."…

The timidity is ongoing, even in the report’s wake. UK writer James Delingpole noted that a BBC item on the Rotherham outrage ran for 20 paragraphs before mentioning the ethnic identity of the perpetrators. Not to be outdone, a piece on the ABC’s AM program last week took 23 paragraphs before this line appeared: “Most of the offenders in Rotherham were from the town’s Pakistani community.” And there was this classic line from the Guardian: “The scale of the sexual exploitation revealed in the Jay inquiry is shocking, but let’s avoid racial stereotyping.”

Do these people ever consider that there just might be one or two things even worse than the dreaded racial stereotyping? Such as the destruction of 1400 young lives, for example?

The Independent on Sunday can reveal that a House of Commons committee is to investigate what Tony Blair’s Home Office knew about the Rotherham scandal as far back as 2001 after more evidence emerged about his government’s efforts to pacify Muslim communities.

Meanwhile, a former minister claimed he was threatened with the sack by his then boss, the foreign secretary Jack Straw, for calling on Muslims in the UK to choose between the “British way or the way of the terrorists” after a 24-year-old from South Yorkshire tried to bomb Israelis in a bar in Tel Aviv in 2003. Former Foreign Office minister Denis MacShane said he was forced to agree to a “grovelling climb-down” over his remarks because he was warned it risked upsetting community relations.

In a bizarre twist, it also emerged that Mr MacShane was disciplined for his remarks following protests led by one of the Muslim politicians at the centre of the child-grooming scandal in Rotherham.”

The arrival of the First Fleet was the defining moment in the history of this continent,? the Prime Minister declared while launching the Defining Moments Project.

“Let me repeat that: it was the defining moment in the history of this continent.”

I suspect Abbott hoped to goad critics into attacking his statement of the obvious to make him seem a fighter against unreason — and to placate conservatives he upset by dropping his free speech crusade.

But to properly defend Abbott’s comments means risking legal action under the very Racial Discrimination Act he now won’t change.

Are Anglicans in the theocracy of Gosford allowed to vote Liberal, or is the minister less the political ideologue he appears?

===A few years ago I was desperate. I was certain to lose my home I had no job and no prospects of getting one in the near future. I got myself baptised at Jesus Family Centre Cabramatta, and the very next day my money worries were gone. But that was three years ago. And I face a similar situation again. But I'm not asking for no money worries .. I will go where the Lord sends me. But I want to be younger so that I can start a family. I am 46 and have never dated in my life. Until now. And the Lord is answering my prayer .. I am losing weight and my blood is better than it has been in over 20 years (He operates on me, but I still gotta exercise and eat right). Please pray for me. ed===God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains; it is His… http://t.co/tX8NqG1V7A===

The questions that ought to have been answered before any statements were made by the likes of Secretary of State John Kerry and Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel have barely been raised in the public arena. The most important of those questions are: What US interests are at stake in Syria? How should the US go about advancing them? What does Syria’s use of chemical weapons means for the US’s position in the region? How would the planned US military action in Syria impact US deterrent strength, national interests and credibility regionally and worldwide? Syria is not an easy case. Thirty months into the war there, it is clear that the good guys, such as they are, are not in a position to win.

Syria is controlled by Iran and its war is being directed by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps and by Hezbollah. And arrayed against them are rebel forces dominated by al-Qaida.

As US Sen. Ted Cruz explained this week, “Of nine rebel groups [fighting the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad], seven of them may well have some significant ties to al-Qaida.”

With no good horse to bet on, the US and its allies have three core interests relating to the war. First, they have an interest in preventing Syria’s chemical, biological and ballistic missile arsenals from being used against them either directly by the regime, through its terror proxies or by a successor regime.

Second, the US and its allies have an interest in containing the war as much as possible to Syria itself.

Finally, the US and its allies share an interest in preventing Iran, Moscow or al-Qaida from winning the war or making any strategic gains from their involvement in the war.

For the past two-and-a-half years, Israel has been doing an exemplary job of securing the first interest. According to media reports, the IDF has conducted numerous strikes inside Syria to prevent the transfer of advanced weaponry, including missiles from Syria to Hezbollah.

Rather than assist Israel in its efforts that are also vital to US strategic interests, the US has been endangering these Israeli operations. US officials have repeatedly leaked details of Israel’s operations to the media. These leaks have provoked several senior Israeli officials to express acute concern that in providing the media with information regarding these Israeli strikes, the Obama administration is behaving as if it is interested in provoking a war between Israel and Syria. The concerns are rooted in a profound distrust of US intentions, unprecedented in the 50-year history of US-Israeli strategic relations.

The second US interest threatened by the war in Syria is the prospect that the war will not be contained in Syria. Iraq, Lebanon and Jordan specifically are threatened by the carnage. To date, this threat has been checked in Jordan and Lebanon. In Jordan, US forces along the border have doubtlessly had a deterrent impact in preventing the infiltration of the kingdom by Syrian forces.

In Lebanon, given the huge potential for spillover, the consequences of the war in Syria have been much smaller than could have been reasonably expected. Hezbollah has taken a significant political hit for its involvement in the war in Syria. On the ground, the spillover violence has mainly involved Shi’ite and Shi’ite jihadists targeting one another.

Iraq is the main regional victim of the war in Syria. The war there reignited the war between Sunnis and Shi’ites in Iraq. Violence has reached levels unseen since the US force surge in 2007. The renewed internecine warfare in Iraq redounds directly to President Barack Obama’s decision not to leave a residual US force in the country. In the absence US forces, there is no actor on the ground capable of strengthening the Iraqi government’s ability to withstand Iranian penetration or the resurgence of al-Qaida.

The third interest of the US and its allies that is threatened by the war in Syria is to prevent Iran, Russia or al-Qaida from securing a victory or a tangible benefit from their involvement in the war.

It is important to note that despite the moral depravity of the regime’s use of chemical weapons, none of America’s vital interests is impacted by their use within Syria. Obama’s pledge last year to view the use of chemical weapons as a tripwire that would automatically cause the US to intervene militarily in the war in Syria was made without relation to any specific US interest.

But once Obama made his pledge, other US interests became inextricably linked to US retaliation for such a strike. The interests now on the line are America’s deterrent power and strategic credibility. If Obama responds in a credible way to Syria’s use of chemical weapons, those interests will be advanced. If he does not, US deterrent power will become a laughing stock and US credibility will be destroyed.

Unfortunately, the US doesn’t have many options for responding to Assad’s use of chemical weapons. If it targets the regime in a serious way, Assad could fall, and al-Qaida would then win the war. Conversely, if the US strike is sufficient to cause strategic harm to the regime’s survivability, Iran could order the Syrians or Hezbollah or Hamas, or all of them, to attack Israel. Such an attack would raise the prospect of regional war significantly.

A reasonable response would be for the US to target Syria’s ballistic missile sites. And that could happen. Although the US doesn’t have to get involved in order to produce such an outcome. Israel could destroy Syria’s ballistic missiles without any US involvement while minimizing the risk of a regional conflagration.

There are regime centers and military command and control bases and other strategic sites that it might make sense for the US to target.

Unfortunately, the number of regime and military targets the US has available for targeting has been significantly reduced in recent days. Administration leaks of the US target bank gave the Syrians ample time to move their personnel and equipment.

This brings us to the purpose the Obama administration has assigned to a potential retaliatory strike against the Syrian regime following its use of chemical weapons.

Obama told PBS on Wednesday that US strikes on Syria would be “a shot across the bow.”

But as Charles Krauthammer noted, such a warning is worthless. In the same interview Obama also promised that the attack would be a nonrecurring event. When there are no consequences to ignoring a warning, then the warning will be ignored.

This is a very big problem. Obama’s obvious reluctance to follow through on his pledge to retaliate if Syria used chemical weapons may stem from a belated recognition that he has tethered the US’s strategic credibility to the quality of its response to an action that in itself has little significance to US interests in Syria.

And this brings us to the third vital US interest threatened by the war in Syria – preventing Iran, al-Qaida or Russia from scoring a victory.

Whereas the war going on in Syria pits jihadists against jihadists, the war that concerns the US and its allies is the war the jihadists wage against everyone else. And Iran is the epicenter of that war.

Like US deterrent power and strategic credibility, the US’s interest in preventing Iran from scoring a victory in Damascus is harmed by the obvious unseriousness of the “signal” Obama said he wishes to send Assad through US air strikes.

Speaking on Sunday of the chemical strike in Syria, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu warned, “Syria has become Iran’s testing ground…. Iran is watching and it wants to see what would be the reaction on the use of chemical weapons.”

The tepid, symbolic response that the US is poised to adopt in response to Syria’s use of chemical weapons represents a clear signal to Iran. Both the planned strikes and the growing possibility that the US will scrap even a symbolic military strike in Syria tell Iran it has nothing to fear from Obama.

Iran achieved a strategic achievement by exposing the US as a paper tiger in Syria. With this accomplishment in hand, the Iranians will feel free to call Obama’s bluff on their nuclear weapons project. Obama’s “shot across the bow” response to Syria’s use of chemical weapons in a mass casualty attack signaled the Iranians that the US will not stop them from developing and deploying a nuclear arsenal.

Policy-makers and commentators who have insisted that we can trust Obama to keep his pledge to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons have based their view on an argument that now lies in tatters. They insisted that by pledging to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear power, Obama staked his reputation on acting competently to prevent Iran from getting the bomb. To avoid losing face, they said, Obama will keep his pledge.

Obama’s behavior on Syria has rendered this position indefensible. Obama is perfectly content with shooting a couple of pot shots at empty government installations. As far as he is concerned, the conduct of air strikes in Syria is not about Syria, or Iran. They are not the target audience of the strikes. The target audience for US air strikes in Syria is the disengaged, uninformed American public.

Obama believes he can prove his moral and strategic bonafides to the public by declaring his outrage at Syrian barbarism and then launching a few cruise missiles from an aircraft carrier. The computer graphics on the television news will complete the task for him.

The New York Times claimed on Thursday that the administration’s case for striking Syria would not be the “political theater” that characterized the Bush administration’s case for waging war in Iraq. But at least the Bush administration’s political theater ended with the invasion. In Obama’s case, the case for war and the war itself are all political theater.

While for a few days the bread and circuses of the planned strategically useless raid will increase newspaper circulation and raise viewer ratings of network news, it will cause grievous harm to US national interests. As far as US enemies are concerned, the US is an empty suit.

And as far as America’s allies are concerned, the only way to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear power is to operate without the knowledge of the United States.

Caroline Glick

Caroline Glick is an Adjunct Fellow at the Center for Security Policy. She is also the Senior Contributing Editor of The Jerusalem Post and Director of the Israel Security Project at the David Horowitz Freedom Center. She serves as adjunct senior fellow for Middle Eastern Affairs at the Center for Security Policy in Washington, D.C., and is the author of Shackled Warrior: Israel and the Global Jihad (2008). She holds a B.A. in Political Science from Columbia University and a Masters in Public Policy from Harvard University, served as Assistant Foreign Policy Advisor to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in 1997-98, and regularly briefs senior administration officials and members of Congress on issues of joint Israeli-American concern. She lives in Jerusalem. A former officer in the Israel Defense Forces, she was a core member of Israel's negotiating team with the Palestinians and later served as an assistant policy advisor to the prime minister. During Operation Iraqi Freedom, the widely-published Glick was an embedded journalist with the U.S. Army's Third Infantry Division. She was awarded a distinguished civilian service award from the U.S. Secretary of the Army for her battlefield reporting.

===Last week, I debated with a friend of mine who claims that Judea and Samaria are occupied territories. I disagreed, of course. Then, I enlisted my expert friend, Roger Froikin. This is the answer he gave me. I am satisfied with it!"Bat Zion, easy. International Law is layered. One always looks back to the newest treaties or agreements between parties for guidance as to what Law is. The governing documents are the League of nations Mandate, Parliamentary law in England as to how to handle the mandate, and the 1949 Armistice Agreements. (The UN Partition of 1947 is not a legal biding agreement because there were not two parties signing on as the Arabs refused). So, Under the provisions of the Mandate and Parliamentary Law, Palestine was to be divided along the Jordan River, with a Jewish homeland to the West, an Arab homeland to the East, and exchanges of population. When Britain illegally broke off Eastern Palestine to form Trans-Jordan as a gift to the Al-Husseini tribe, that violated the Mandate and British law (but then King Hussein ibn Talal al-Husseini declared that Jordan was Palestine when he became King). In 1949, after 1 1/2 years of war, the British commanded Jordanian legion and Irai troops controlled parts of Jewish Palestine. An Armistice was signed between all parties which stated that the status of those lands not controlled by Israel, but West of the Jordan, would be negotiated as to final disposition. Jordan would be caretaker of the areas occupied until that point. Jordan, a Foreign nation (at that point) occupied territory, and proceeded to violate the Geneva Conventions (I-V) and the provisions of the Armistice, by expropriating all jewish property, destroying Jewish property, desecrating Jewish sites, and banning Jews, even from jewish holy places, and by periodically firing on Jews in Western jerusalem (including me in 1963). In 1967, Jordan joined a war in which the Arab states threatened in repeated broadcasts was to kill or exclude all the Jews. Israel won. That ended the Armistice Agreement of 1949 because now the only legal sovereign nation in palestine - Israel, controlled all lands that were originally to be part of the "Jewish Homeland" per the Mandate provisions. hereford, Israeli control of Judea and Samaria and all of jerusalem is legal, and repatriating all Jewish property expropriated illegally by Jordan is perfectly legal." >===

Rant by CLAL's Irwin Kula ranks somewhere between the musings of a Marxist high school sophomore and the product of an Occupy Wall Street tent city seminar conducted in a haze of marijuana smoke

http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |Absent the ability to make moral distinctions, ethics is a meaningless concept. Indeed, if you can't tell the difference between, say, a despotic theocracy and a genuine if flawed democracy, you are in a poor position to claim any moral authority, let alone speak for a great religious tradition grounded in the Torah and the work of countless generations of Jewish scholars.

Yet that is the position that CLAL—The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership finds itself in today. Founded in 1974 by Rabbi Irving "Yitz" Greenberg, CLAL's main initial focus was to forge a sense of Jewish unity in an American community divided by bickering denominations and a vast array of political and religious disputes.

If today, 16 years after Greenberg retired and was replaced by Rabbi Irwin Kula, many of its efforts often might be mistaken for a faint shadow of whatever liberal conventional wisdom recently came down the pike, its slogan "The Hebrew word for inclusive" still highlights a brand that is rooted in the idea of bringing together a diverse Jewish community.

Kula has never been mistaken for Greenberg, whose centrism was not just a pose but also a genuine conviction (he was fond of saying that no matter which denomination you belonged to, you had something to be ashamed of).

Rather than tell each segment of American Jewry hard truths, Kula has specialized in telling liberal Jewish audiences what they want to hear. But while there has never been much doubt that he is a figure of the left, something he posted on his official Facebook page on Tuesday that claimed Iran's faux elections are little different from America's democratic system calls into questions not only his judgment, but his moral compass.

The post (hat tip to Alan Luxenberg of the Philadelphia-based Foreign Policy Research Institute) read as follows:

Of course there is a difference and yet there is something strangely parallel how in Iran you have to be vetted by the guardian council of clerics to run for president while in the United States, while you don't have to be vetted by clerics, you have to be vetted by concentrations of private capital. With very rare exceptions unless you pass their filter, you don't enter the political system. I guess one way or another it is always clerics…the only question being just what religion they are peddling, using, distorting? to preserve and expand their power…yes yes yes i would rather live here than in Iran…

While we're glad that Kula prefers to dwell in the American theocracy of "private capital" to the pleasures of life in an Islamist state where Jews are demonized, that is about the only thought here that makes any sense. Suffice it to say that there is nothing remotely analogous about the process by which American politicians seek to raise money from citizens and groups and a system that rules as ineligible for inclusion on a ballot anyone who diverges even a smidge from the ideology of Ayatollah Khomeini.

==="Our security and our values demand that we cannot turn away from the massacre of countless civilians with chemical weapons. And our democracy is stronger when the President and the peoples’ representatives stand together. I am ready to act in the face of this outrage.

Today, I am asking Congress to send a message to the world that we are ready to move forward together as one nation." —President Obama in a statement today on Syria.

The Dutch government has asked the country’s largest engineering company to rethink its participation in a project with the Jerusalem municipality because the project is based on the Palestinian side of the 1967 border. Foreign Ministry officials fear that this will be a trend in Europe, not an isolated incident.

The project by Royal HaskoningDHV involves Israeli company Mati, a subsidiary of Hagihon, the municipality’s water and sewage company.

In the project, a sewage treatment plant would be built to battle the pollution in the Kidron stream, which runs from the Mount of Olives and the village of Silwan in East Jerusalem toward the settlement of Ma’aleh Adumim and the Dead Sea. The plant is to be built in Area C, under full Israeli military and civilian control.

According to a senior official in the Foreign Ministry, the municipality told the ministry two weeks ago about problems linked to the project. Royal HaskoningDHV officials told the municipality that the Dutch Foreign Ministry had warned about the possible consequences of carrying out projects for Israeli companies in East Jerusalem or the West Bank.

Dutch Foreign Ministry officials told Royal HaskoningDHV that such a project would violate international law, leading the company to consider pulling out of the project to avoid financial, legal and image problems.

The Dutch, as the EU, would rather Palestinians will drink their own shit than tarnish it’s image by having a private Dutch company help the environment and the Palestinians.

Edit: this entry wrongly claimed it was the EU was the one to press the Dutch firm Royal HaskoningDHV. It was the Dutch government. J.D.

===

HOUSTON (KTRK) — Houston police have released surveillance photos of the three suspects involved in a deadly robbery at a west Houston Denny’s restaurant. The suspects killed in cold blood a man who was just trying to protect a child, and now that victim’s son is speaking out.

The photos, which were released late Wednesday, show the chaos that unfolded inside the restaurant late Monday night.

A day after Greig Placette was shot and killed during a restaurant robbery, his son Drue is still struggling with the reality of it.

A hate crime? ed===The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement. But the opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth. Niels Bohr (1885 - 1962)

The first meaning is of a point (physical, decisional, etc.) beyond which one will proceed no further.

The second meaning is that of a point beyond which, once the decision to go beyond it is made, the decision and its resulting consequences are permanently decided and irreversible.

It is generally believed that if someone should “cross the line” than their behavior is wrong and not socially acceptable. The recent use by President Assad of chemical weapons, whose use was banned in warfare by a 1925 international treaty, does indeed cross a line, into a sort of brutality so extreme that the civilized world cannot afford to tolerate it.

President Obama left his proverbial “fly open” by making multiple “Line in the sand” threats to end the civil war in Syria. His lack of immediate response not only embarrassed himself but his has made a mockery of his administration as well. This bloody civil war has been raging for more than two years and has claimed 100,000 casualties, many of them in atrocities that shock the conscience. President Obama’s failure to enact his threats to stop this bloodshed has stained all brave Americans. It is hoped by many American's that after tonight's speech that President Obama has come to the conclusion to never make a threat if you can't carry it out. As President he needs to know that; "When placed in command — take charge." And that "Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character. But if you must be without one, do without the strategy."

Like some spoiled grade school kid to the school bully he threatened President Bashar Assad, of "Red Lines" and than he stepped back. The people of the world and the Middle East now know that the US which was once feared by evil leaders as the "most powerful Democracy" is in reality a weak kneed "Paper Lion".

From my own personal experience in life I agree with the words of late Four Star General and Commander-in-Chief of U.S. Central Command of the Coalition Forces in the Gulf War of 1991 H. NormanSchwarzkopf, Jr. that; “Any soldier worth his salt should be antiwar.” And that;

"A professional soldier understands that war means killing people, war means maiming people, war means families left without fathers and mothers. All you have to do is hold your first dying soldier in your arms, and have that terribly futile feeling that his life is flowing out and you can’t do anything about it. Then you understand the horror of war.”

As an Israeli I will reiterate that I personally do not want the US to get involved in Syria because most Americans do not have the faintest idea of what makes up the Middle East.

I stand firmly behind the fact that Americans should not have to sacrifice their kids for either side in the quagmire that the Syrian Civil War has become. What with it’s two warring fractions that I term "Bad" or "Even Worst".

It is my fervent wish; I hope it is yours too, for them to murder each other in droves. The “Pro Assad” "Secular" Baath regime is being backed by the fanatically religious Shi'ite regime of Iran and their Lebanese lackeys the Hezbollah. The rebels are a confused mixture with a new and odious vicious group The Chechnian Al Qaeda.

This particularly vicious radical and fanatical Sunni Moslem religious group is involved in the fighting and they are getting stronger. For the moment they are fighting against the forces of Assad and the Hezbollah. And for once I actually agree withRussian President Vladimir Putkin and with the Ruskies that as long as the Al Qaeda’s Chechen, Caucasian fighters are getting killed and the Hezbollah are being killed we should be immensely thankful! As my Christian Lebanese friend says; “Inshallah may they continue!”

As an American, President Obama is right on the count that he needs to know that at least the US Congress will back him up. When the US Congress reconvenes I think that it is about time that all US voters/taxpayers wipe the smirk smiles off those Arab faces. Use this “Golden Opportunity” to take immediate action to bombard your representatives, congressmen and Senators to wake up and cut off ALL foreign aid to ALL Arab countries, the UN and especially UNWRA!!!

IF the Arabs are “Laughing” at the USA than Let them “foot” the bill LITERALLY. After all the billions if not trillions in US Tax dollars spent on saving the wrong guy in Arab countries over the years. It is time for the Arabs primarily Saudi Arabia -your "US Gas Dollars at work" to police the area. AND the USA should demand repayment! Why should you Americas spend your hard owned tax dollars to protect the lavish lifestyles of the Saudi Princes? And what do YOU the US Taxpayer's have to say to this? Did I hear any of you writing your congressman about cutting US Aid to the Arabs?

I mean wouldn’t it be nice to get back the TRILLIONS wasted on protecting Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the Gulf State Emirates to pay for America schools, Health Care and aging infrastructure?

American naiveté of the Middle East can be further witnessed in an interview to Al Arabiya, few days after his inauguration, Obama declared: "my job to the Muslim world is to communicate that the Americans are not your enemy. President Obama in his infamous "A New Beginning" speech in Cairo in June of 2009 embarrassed himself and the American people by trying to "make up" with Islam. At that time that Egypt was chosen because as White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs stated; "it is a country that in many ways represents the heart of the Arab world.

President Obama and his adviser's fiasco of not comprehending the Middle East is further exasperated in his lauding of the "Election" of the Moslem Brotherhood leadership in President Morsi. In the aftermath of what the imbeciles of the BBC and CNN termed the "Arab Spring" protests in Tahrir Square of the moderate secular middle class youth. And though the Army had supported Mubarak through his decades-long rule, it became increasingly clear that the Moslem Brotherhood had the best political operation and would likely win the popular vote in the elections of 2012 Ever-pragmatic businessmen, the military officers realized that they had to negotiate with their erstwhile enemies, to protect their own institutions, perks, and bank accounts, they would have to step in on the side of the protesters against Mubarak. When Morsi turned autocratic and the Brotherhood subverted the popular will, Egypt received little in support from the U.S. it seemed a clear message from the White House.

The extremely fanatical Islamic fundamentalist group which had been outlawed by the Egyptians, who knew what they were all about, were released from their “Pandora box”. Suddenly they took over as the Nazis did through “Democratic” elections because the Moderate and seculars “thought they had the elections in the bag” did not realize that the Moslem Brotherhood out numbered them. These Sixth Century backward uneducated Islamic religious fanatics began to reverse Egypt, like Iran in 1979.

“Luckily” the secular Egyptian military leadership reversed all this is their coup. And for once it was a military Juanta that took control to bring sanity back to what was once a close ally to the US. But President Obama and his advisors once again have shown their ignorance by siding with the “Democratically Elected” Mohamed Morsi and by ostracizing the Egyptian Military leader General AbdelFattah al-Sisi. As he bluntly told The Washington Post in a rare recent interview: “You turned your back on the Egyptians, and they won’t forget that.” Since the overthrow of the Moslem Brotherhood and Morsi’s, the Sunni royals of the Gulf states have secured billions of dollars in aid from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, who have their own agenda in Egypt. Because of this slap in the face by President Obama the Egyptian Minister of Defense ordered that “No (US) warship has the right to pass through the Suez Canal to attack Syria”

I seriously doubt that Americans are aware that Al-Sisi was selected to attend the U.S. Army War College in 2006 during a severely traumatic period in the Middle East—for Americans as well as for Arabs. It was while at the WarCollege, al-Sisi wrote an 11-page academic paper titled “Democracy in the Middle East.” In his paper he pointed out the influence of Christianity and its culture on American government, especially in its early days, drawing a parallel with the role of Islam now in the establishment of nascent Middle Eastern democracies. Al-Sisi wrote that whereas Americans believe in “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” Islamic cultures cling to principles of “fairness, justice, equality, unity, and charity,” he argued. Americans look to their republic’s Founding Fathers for guidance; Muslims cherish the memory of the ancient caliphate. It is ironic that in this paper he states that “this does not mean a theocracy will be established,” wrote al-Sisi, “rather it means a democracy will be established based on Islamic beliefs.”

And another fact to note is that since the Camp David peace accords 1978 more than $1.4 billion a year from the United Statespours into the coffers of the Egyptian military. In order to keep its officers and soldiers loyal the Egyptian military pays out rich dividends to them. The military draws on recruits from throughout Egyptian society, a state habitually plagued by nepotism and corruption. As officers move up the ranks, they move ever-more deeply into a world intentionally isolated from the rest of the country. They have their own apartments, their own clubs, their own schools and stores. The Army has its own manufacturing empire and a vast construction business that frequently shuts out the private sector in bids for contracts with little or no public accountability.

As to the embarrassing fall of our once staunch ally in the United Kingdom. The vote in the English House of Commons shows not only the war weariness of the English people but it is a warning bell to the people of England and Europe of the spread and rise in population of their Moslem constituents and their growing political power from within.

The quagmire we live in today vis a vis the Arab world is a direct outcome of those who still cannot comprehend the hidden agenda and rise of post 9/11 radical Islam.

Since taking office, Obama stated his support for the creation of a "Falestinian" state and announced that he would engage in negotiations with Iran. He also declared he opposed Israeli settlements and wanted to revive "Falestinian" peace talks. Binyamin Netanyahu’s six-year old policy, which was oriented on engendering understanding with Barack Obama, is in ruins as Bibi now has to wipe egg off his face.

And of course yet again we in Israel have been left holding the proverbial bag and have been put in a tight spot on three counts:

1. The hostile Iran-Syrian-Hezbollah bloc comes out strengthened;

2. Tehran can feel free to develop a nuclear bomb without fear of resolute US interference;

3. Hezbollah can celebrate its backing for the winning horse in Damascus.

In the meantime “Wile E. Coyote” aka Bashar Assad and his Iranian partners now have all the time in the world to line up their counter moves. And we will continue to hear the laughter from the whole Arab world of what a total fool and weak leader the US has.

===“P. J. O'Rourke famously said that if you think health care is expensive now, wait until it's free,” said Avik Roy, of the Manhattan Institute. “Once you lard on all these additional things, all these extras that insurers must provide, you have to pay for that."

DUNKIN' Donuts, an American doughnut company, has apologised for the "insensitivity" of an advertising campaign in Thailand featuring a woman in blackface makeup.

The Dunkin' Donuts franchise in Thailand came under criticism on Friday after Human Rights Watch called the advertisements "bizarre and racist."

The company's chief executive in Thailand initially defended the campaign but the US headquarters quickly followed up with an apology.

"We are working with our Thailand franchisee to immediately pull the ad. DD recognises the insensitivity of this spot" Dunkin' Donuts said in a tweet posted on its official US website after complaints erupted on Twitter, in a variety of blogs and in mainstream American media.

The local franchise launched the advertisement earlier this month to promote its new "Charcoal Donut."

In posters, TV commercials and on Facebook, the campaign shows a smiling woman with blackface makeup, bright pink lipstick and a jet black 1950s-style beehive hairdo holding up a bit black doughnut. The slogan in Thai reads: "Break every rule of deliciousness."

Critics say the image is reminiscent of 19th and early 20th century American stereotypes for black people that are now considered offensive symbols of a racist era.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch said it was shocked to see an American brand name running an advertising campaign that would draw "howls of outrage" if released in the United States.

The campaign hasn't ruffled many in Thailand, where it's common for advertisements to use racial stereotypes.

Hours before the apology was issued by Dunkin' Donuts headquarters, the company's chief executive in Thailand dismissed the criticism as "paranoid American thinking."

"It's absolutely ridiculous," the CEO Nadim Salhani said in a telephone interview.

"We're not allowed to use black to promote our doughnuts? I don't get it. What's the big fuss? What if the product was white and I painted someone white, would that be racist?"

In response to President Obama's empty speech, Sir, you turned your back on Americans in Benghazi, so do not pretend to lecture us about obligation. He is afraid to make a decision so is now setting up Congress for the blame. We should not commit our Military because Obama said something stupid and especially since he does not have a strategic or operational objective. Perhaps if he had not decided to "end the Iraq War" and left a residual force on the Iraq-Syrian border we would not have this situation. I guess this is not so time sensitive, but it is a confirmation of Obama's weakness. NO authorization for military action in Syria.

“As I have already said, I have had MY MILITARY and our team look at a wide range of options.”

Of course, Obama sympathizers were quick to defend Dear Leader on social media sites Friday night, many suggesting it was simply a slip of the presidential tongue. Sure it was. The Narcissist-in-Chief has referred to “my government” earlier in his presidency.

“My military” is sure to be a great hit with our proud men and women in uniform. Although – now O’s “I Killed Osama Bin Laden” Victory Tour makes a little more sense, doesn’t it?

Were YOU surprised?===IRANIAN CHIEF OF STAFF: "The US imagination about limited military intervention in Syria is merely an illusion, as reactions will be coming from beyond Syria’s borders."===“It’s not going to be easy to reverse the forces that have conspired for decades against working Americans.”

VETERAN broadcaster Sir David Frost has died from a heart attack aged 74, his family says.

Sir David died on Saturday night on the Queen Elizabeth cruise ship, where he was due to give a speech.

Known for incisive interviews with the leading figures of his time, and perhaps most famously disgraced US president Richard Nixon, Sir David spent more than 50 years as a television star.

British Prime Minister David Cameron was quick to send his condolences and tweeted: "My heart goes out to David Frost's family. He could be - and certainly was with me - both a friend and a fearsome interviewer".

In a statement to BBC News, Sir David's family said: "His family are devastated and ask for privacy at this difficult time. A family funeral will be held in the near future and details of a memorial service will be announced in due course."

His Sunday morning interview program Breakfast with Frost ran on the BBC from January 1993 until May 2005.

In recent years he worked for al-Jazeera English and had recently interviewed F1 driver Lewis Hamilton.

“Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the LORD our Maker; for he is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care. Today, if only you would hear his voice,” Psalm 95:6-7NIV

===

Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon

Morning

In seasons of severe trial, the Christian has nothing on earth that he can trust to, and is therefore compelled to cast himself on his God alone. When his vessel is on its beam-ends, and no human deliverance can avail, he must simply and entirely trust himself to the providence and care of God. Happy storm that wrecks a man on such a rock as this! O blessed hurricane that drives the soul to God and God alone! There is no getting at our God sometimes because of the multitude of our friends; but when a man is so poor, so friendless, so helpless that he has nowhere else to turn, he flies into his Father's arms, and is blessedly clasped therein! When he is burdened with troubles so pressing and so peculiar, that he cannot tell them to any but his God, he may be thankful for them; for he will learn more of his Lord then than at any other time. Oh, tempest-tossed believer, it is a happy trouble that drives thee to thy Father! Now that thou hast only thy God to trust to, see that thou puttest thy full confidence in him. Dishonour not thy Lord and Master by unworthy doubts and fears; but be strong in faith, giving glory to God. Show the world that thy God is worth ten thousand worlds to thee. Show rich men how rich thou art in thy poverty when the Lord God is thy helper. Show the strong man how strong thou art in thy weakness when underneath thee are the everlasting arms. Now is the time for feats of faith and valiant exploits. Be strong and very courageous, and the Lord thy God shall certainly, as surely as he built the heavens and the earth, glorify himself in thy weakness, and magnify his might in the midst of thy distress. The grandeur of the arch of heaven would be spoiled if the sky were supported by a single visible column, and your faith would lose its glory if it rested on anything discernible by the carnal eye. May the Holy Spirit give you to rest in Jesus this closing day of the month.

Evening

As he is in the light! Can we ever attain to this? Shall we ever be able to walk as clearly in the light as he is whom we call "Our Father," of whom it is written, "God is light, and in him is no darkness at all?" Certainly, this is the model which is set before us, for the Saviour himself said, "Be ye perfect, even as your Father who is in heaven is perfect;" and although we may feel that we can never rival the perfection of God, yet we are to seek after it, and never to be satisfied until we attain to it. The youthful artist, as he grasps his early pencil, can hardly hope to equal Raphael or Michael Angelo, but still, if he did not have a noble beau ideal before his mind, he would only attain to something very mean and ordinary. But what is meant by the expression that the Christian is to walk in light as God is in the light? We conceive it to import likeness, but not degree. We are as truly in the light, we are as heartily in the light, we are as sincerely in the light, as honestly in the light, though we cannot be there in the same measure. I cannot dwell in the sun, it is too bright a place for my residence, but I can walk in the light of the sun; and so, though I cannot attain to that perfection of purity and truth which belongs to the Lord of hosts by nature as the infinitely good, yet I can set the Lord always before me, and strive, by the help of the indwelling Spirit, after conformity to his image. That famous old commentator, John Trapp, says, "We may be in the light as God is in the light for quality, but not for equality." We are to have the same light, and are as truly to have it and walk in it as God does, though, as for equality with God in his holiness and purity, that must be left until we cross the Jordan and enter into the perfection of the Most High. Mark that the blessings of sacred fellowship and perfect cleansing are bound up with walking in the light.

2 He swore an oath to the LORD,he made a vow to the Mighty One of Jacob:3 "I will not enter my houseor go to my bed,4 I will allow no sleep to my eyesor slumber to my eyelids,5 till I find a place for the LORD,a dwelling for the Mighty One of Jacob."

Today's New Testament reading: 1 Corinthians 11:17-34

Correcting an Abuse of the Lord's Supper

17 In the following directives I have no praise for you, for your meetings do more harm than good. 18 In the first place, I hear that when you come together as a church, there are divisions among you, and to some extent I believe it. 19 No doubt there have to be differences among you to show which of you have God's approval. 20 So then, when you come together, it is not the Lord's Supper you eat, 21 for when you are eating, some of you go ahead with your own private suppers. As a result, one person remains hungry and another gets drunk. 22 Don't you have homes to eat and drink in? Or do you despise the church of God by humiliating those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you? Certainly not in this matter!

Methuselah, Mathusala[Mētho̅o̅'se lah] - a man of the javelinor it shall be sent (deluge). The son of Enoch, and grand-father of Noah, who lived longer than any other man recorded in history (Gen. 5:21-27).

The Man Who Lived the Longest

The Bible represents human life as vastly prolonged before the Flood. Afterwards it grew rapidly briefer. The longevity of the antediluvian races proves that the constitution of man was different from what it is today. With the Flood a change took place so that now the duration of human life is rarely over one hundred years. No strength of constitution, temperance or vegetable diet can add years to such a limit. The instructive register of Genesis five shows that the man who lived for the shortest period lived for 365 years, and the one who lived for the longest period lived for 969 years.

The remarkable longevity served a useful purpose in that it made possible the reception and preservation of ancient traditions. Perhaps Adam lived for about 113 years after the birth of Methuselah, and Methuselah could not have been more than 369 years old when his grandson Noah was born. Thus, Noah conversed with one who had conversed with Adam and Enoch had the privilege of conversing with Adam. God knows how to preserve His truth for the guidance and sanctification of succeeding generations.

Although Methuselah, whose name was fitting for a time when the earth was full of violence, lived for almost a millennium, nothing whatever is recorded of his long life save the birth of his children. What an immense influence he could have exerted through the years if only, like his father Enoch, he had walked with God! It is not the length of a life that counts, but thequality of it.

Why did Methuselah die thirty-one years short of a millennium? Has God reserved the privilege of living for one thousand years for the millennial saints? During our Lord's millennial reign, life is to be prolonged again, so that one hundred years shall be the duration of childhood, and a grown man's ordinary age shall be in the age of a tree (Isa. 65:20, 22).

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About Me

I'm author of History in a Year by the Conservative Voice aka History of the World in a Year by the Conservative Voice.

I'm the Conservative Voice.

I'm looking to make contact with those who might use my skill.

I have an m-audio mobile pre amp fed by the audiotechnica 2041sp condensor mic pack. Prior to 15/4/06, I'd used a Shure sm-58 that required a nuclear blast to register a sound or the internal mic of my aged imac, which has a penchance to recording my breathing. I also used a Griffin itrip, until the community convinced me it was not hiding my talent as well as the other mics.

I am a Writer and an occasional Math Teacher (Sir, what's the occasion?). I like to sing, having no instrumental talent (cannot even clap in time, and yes, I'm aware singing badly IS obnoxious).

I have performed the finale to Les Miserables before an audience of 500. I have also sung before a similar audience (students, parents) renditions of 'I Will' (Beatles), 'Mr Cairo' (Jon Vangelis) and 'I am Australian' (Seekers). Now I seek another profession because the audience hates me ..